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Indiana Eco-Traveler Update: December 16, 2018

German Ridge revisited; A Hoosier National vacation plan

Firearm season in the Hoosier National Forest kept brief a couple blaze-orange-required hikes along the German Ridge Trail in late November. The 24-mile backcountry path is the southernmost section of the Hoosier’s 260-mile trail system and rises and falls a couple miles north of a 90-degree bend in the Ohio River near the historic German Ridge Cemetery and riverside village of Rome, Ind., population 1,300.

Planned after precautionary deer-season discussions with Forest Service officials in Tell City, the day hikes marked a return to this remote section of Perry County backcountry last explored in March 2015. It was also the first stop in a six-month itinerary that resumes in earnest over the Christmas teaching vacation and will end with submission of the Rewilding Southern Indiana: The Hoosier National Forest coffee table book to IU Press next June.

Next stop on the Hoosier trail will be the most significant prehistoric site on the 204,000-acre national forest: a rock shelter frequented by prehistoric hunters and gatherers over thousands of years following the retreat of the last Ice Age glaciers some ten thousand years ago. This obscure, secretive site is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, requires bushwhacking off-trail and has a limited window for access without special permission.

A Guide to Natural Areas of Northern Indiana

The latest Natural Bloomington nature book – A Guide to Natural Areas of Northern Indiana: 125 Unique Places to Explore — will be published by IU Press in Spring 2019.

Like its companion – A Guide to Natural Areas of Southern Indiana, IU Press 2016 – this roughly 400-page volume will tell the stories of what little is left of the state’s natural history, this time from Interstate 70 north to the Michigan State Line.

Both guides provide readers with comprehensive descriptions of the natural characteristics and recreational opportunities found at nature preserves, forests, wildlife areas, parks, and lakes in all four corners of the state – from Posey to Lake to Steuben to Dearborn Counties – with historical contexts and turn-by-turn/GPS directions.

The Northern Indiana sites are owned and managed by a variety of public and private organizations, including ACRES Land Trust, whose Executive Director Jason Kissell wrote the Foreword. Landscapes run the gamut, from canyon to prairie to swamp to lake, much forested, much in open sun. All are open to the public.

A Guide to Natural Areas of Northern Indiana will feature 140 color photographs captured between June 2016 and November 2017.

Nature Photo eBook - This is Indiana?

Natural Bloomington is pleased to announce release of our first Nature Photo eBook This is Indiana? - The Natural Bloomington Journey: 2013-2015.

This is Indiana? is a photographic retrospective of Natural Bloomington's first three years and features 105 hi res, full-color images of the Southern Indiana landscape from the Switzerland Hills to the Southwest Lowlands.You can download a copy of This is Indiana? for free. A $10 contribution is requested.

Natural Bloomington continues to evolve

From ecotours to nature books

Natural Bloomington's transition from ecotourism to nature book publishing continued in 2017 with the completion of A Guide to Natural Areas of Northern Indiana, which will be published in Spring 2019.

The Northern Indiana volume is a companion to A Guide to Natural Areas of Southern Indiana, IU Press 2016, which featured 119 natural areas -- public and private nature preserves, state parks, fish & wildlife areas, etc. -- that are managed for flora, fauna, and outdoor recreation.

The focus has now shifted to a coffee table book tentatively titled The Hoosier National Forest: Rewilding Southern Indiana, which will likewise be published by IU Press.

We - owner Steven Higgs and family and friends who support the Natural Bloomington Mission in so many ways - will still arrange ecotours on request.

But the emphasis for the next two years will be exploriong solo what little is left of the unexpected natural beauty that is still to be found in Indiana, north and south.

"In this guidebook, Steven Higgs has compiled and written a hundred times more good, useful information about my native state's natural treasures than I ever learned in eighty years of crawling, hiking, riding, swimming, and paddling all over them.”

To purchase a copy and support the Natural Bloomington mission, click here.

Mission

Natural Bloomington's mission is to celebrate and share Southern Indiana's natural beauty through image,prose and ecotourism.

Ecotourism

Through our Historic, Environmental & Scenic Ecotours, Natural Bloomington subscribes to the principles set down by the International EcoTourism Society for “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people."

Natural Bloomington welcomes the opportunity to lead groups on ecotours during any season of the year.